The document Americans have come to know as the Declaration of Independence was authored in 1776 and is comprised of several sections. The first section, known as the introduction, generally states the reason that the document was written and states the causes for the American colonies to part ways with Great Britain. The second section is called the preamble and spells out the principals that were recognized as being ÃÂself evidentÃÂ by most subjects of the British Empire. The first section of the body of the Declaration gives evidence of the "long train of abuses and usurpations" heaped upon the colonists shoulders by King George III. The second section of the body states that the colonists had pleads and warns England by saying ÃÂNor have we been wanting in our attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over usÃÂ .

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United States

United States

This warning is significant since it clearly refers to past incidents such as the "long train of abuses and usurpations" that were addressed by the colonies and are now tied to this new action of declaring independence. Now that the conditions that made independence necessary have been stated and having shown that those conditions existed in British North America, the Declaration concludes that"these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and IndependentStates; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown,and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain,is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that, as free and independent states,they have full power to levy warÃÂ ÃÂ .

This phrase holds obvious weight, yet consider its words in the time they were written. The authors of the declaration, in no uncertain terms,

Reviews of: "Declaration of Independence":

This is a good essay, although it is flawed by several errors that a carefully reading should have picked up: "adders" should have been "address"; "salve" for "slave."

The document also touches on but fails to appreciate the very delicate situation the colonies faced. They were thirteen colonies. They were not yet a nation, and it would take the war and a period of post-war muddling before they would collectively dare to become a nation with the adoption of the Constitution in 1789. Now, more than two centuries after the fact, we can appreciate the enormity of the slavery issue. In 1776, to have tried to condemn slavery would have shattered the very tentative union that the colonies had formed with one another, and foredoomed the revolution.

These flaws preclude this from being a top-rated essay.

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